Anyone interested in web design or development can attend: whether you're a website owner, a full or part-time designer or developer, a student, or are just getting started.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

Agenda
We'll have our usual helping of free-form discussion, but we're also planning to discuss usability and usability testing. http://en.wikipedia.o...

We've discussed the importance of usability testing at past meetings, and thought we'd spend an entire meeting focusing on usability and performing some actual usability testing.

Usability testing is simply testing websites to make sure they work well and are easy to use for their intended audience.

Who can participate?
Anyone is welcome to bring a website to be tested.

What do I need to bring?

• Come prepared with a website to be tested. This is a chance to get some free education and advice about your own, or a customer's, site.
  
• Bring a list of 5 - 7 tasks or actions you'd like the people being tested to accomplish during the test.
  
• Bring something to take notes with.
  

How will it work?
You're welcome to run your own test as you like, but here a quick overview of how I approach it:

• Explain to the person(s) being tested that the purpose of the test is to learn about, and improve our site. There are no wrong answers and they should freely speak their mind.
  
• Make sure that the testee thinks aloud, letting everyone know why they're doing what they're doing.
  
• Present the person being tested with my list of tasks.
  
• Ask them to proceed with a task and watch, listen and take notes.
  
• If the user gets stuck, don't prompt them, except to learn what they're thinking and what they may do next.
  
• Be prepared to be humbled.
  
• We'll all take and compare notes and hopefully give each tester some valuable tools to make their site better.
  

We'll have an overhead projector and laptops to use, if you need.

One of my usability heroes is Steve Krug, whose book "Don't Make Me Think" is a must-read for anyone interested in making better sites. I highly recommend it!